Rishard Khan

rishard.khan@guardian.co.tt

Rel­a­tives of the Venezue­lan mi­nors who were de­port­ed af­ter try­ing to en­ter the coun­try il­le­gal­ly on No­vem­ber 22 said yes­ter­day they knew they were break­ing the law. How­ev­er, they said they were forced to do it to en­sure their loved ones’ sur­vival.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia through a trans­la­tor, Miguel Col­i­na, 29, said his wife Mariels Fer­mo, 27 and three chil­dren, aged be­tween three to 12, were among the mi­grants who were de­port­ed and re­turned to T&T and are now be­ing held un­der quar­an­tine at the Ch­aguara­mas He­li­port. He has not seen them in two years since he left Venezuela to come to Trinidad.

“I knew it was a risk but I had the hope to have them with me,” Col­i­na said.

“For me, it was a big­ger risk to leave them in Venezuela, be­cause in Venezuela it’s al­most im­pos­si­ble to live - lack of food, lack of fruits for chil­dren, lack of tablets for them. My wife, when she was in Erin Po­lice Sta­tion, she... lost a lot of weight and my chil­dren, when I saw them, they lost a lot of weight. It was too much.”

Carelys Cara­bal­lo, 23, said her two nephews and niece, aged be­tween two and 11, were on the boat with her sis­ter-in-law Yan­itza. She said they were com­ing across to live with her.

“It has al­ways been my de­sire to help her (sis­ter-in-law). I have al­ways been very close to my ... nieces and my nephew,” she said.

She said both she and her hus­band were work­ing very hard to be able to sup­port the chil­dren fi­nan­cial­ly when they ar­rived.

Fe­lix Mar­cano, 44, said his wife Nelys­beth Con­tera, 34 and chil­dren Ali­cia, 9, and Zaid, 5, were on board the boat.

“The on­ly thing that I want is that they come back with me,” Mar­cano said.

“All I want is to have them with me. I want to pro­tect them. I want to give them a life that I promised them. I want to give them good meals.”

He said the sit­u­a­tion was so bad in Venezuela that he could be killed if he is seen with food for his fam­i­ly.

All the rel­a­tives of the de­tained mi­grants have been liv­ing in Trinidad for at least one year and were reg­is­tered dur­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s Mi­grant Reg­is­tra­tion ini­tia­tive last year.

On No­vem­ber 22, 16 Venezue­lan chil­dren and nine women were de­port­ed mere hours be­fore their court hear­ing. They lat­er re­turned to the coun­try and were de­tained by po­lice on their ar­rival.

In an open let­ter to the Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley last week, the Caribbean Cen­tre for Hu­man Rights, Amnesty In­ter­na­tion­al, Refugees In­ter­na­tion­al and 14 oth­er or­gan­i­sa­tions said their re­turn gives T&T’s Gov­ern­ment a sec­ond chance to up­hold their do­mes­tic and in­ter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tions to pro­tect peo­ple seek­ing safe­ty from dan­ger.